wake the tread

I use my Motorola Droid for GPS on the bike, and didn't want to pay $25 for a handlebar mount. Using the back of a 2-piece phone case, I rigged this mount together myself. I haven't ridden the bike with it yet, but it seems quite snug enough for road riding. I'm not sure how it will do on light or heavier trails, but I'm more inclined to advise against it.

1. The Parts

Left to right: Body Glove case bottom for Motorola Droid, with belt-clip gear/button in middle, (round) reflector mount, belt clip, belt clip's stand removed

2. Assembly

Superglue belt-clip to reflector base

Pad back of Body Glove case so it doesn't rock when mounted

Clip in securely

3. Ready For Takeoff

No, that's not my girlfriend :(

A couple weeks ago I purchased a 1997 Cannondale F700 mountain bike. This was manufactured when the company still completely produced their bikes in the US, before the Pacific/Dorel buyout, which unfortunately shipped their manufacturing overseas to Taiwan. As the bike was in pretty good shape, I decided to give it a real ride and head out to my gramma's in Freedom. I left from Appleton, a city of 70,000, into a mostly farm and field town with long stretches of roads.

I hadn't kept track of any GPS data or taken any photos on my ride out, only on my ride back. Right now, I'm using Move! Bike Computer (free) for my Android phone to log GPS data and map route.

Route (GPSVisualizer.com)
Click for larger view

You'll notice complete dips in the speed graphs. This is where I either took a break, or had to walk the bike because there wasn't enough room on the roads with traffic. For the most part, there was room, until I got to a portion of Ballard, coming back into Appleton.

Speed data (Topofusion)
Click for larger view

Here is the elevation data. Wisconsin is pretty flat, so the changes seem rather exaggerated until you note the measurements on the right of the graph.

Elevation data (Topofusion)
Click for larger view

Trip Data
(from TopoFusion)

Time left: 3:29 PM

Time arrived: 4:45 PM

Distance: 10.54 miles

Total time: 1:14:54

Active time: 1:07:25

Idle time: 0:07:29

Uphill time: 0:19:18
Downhill time: 0:17:17
Uphill distance: 3.27 miles
Downhill distance: 3.57 miles
Flat distance: 3.71 miles

Average speed: 9.4 MPH

Average gross speed: 8.14 MPH

Max speed: 27.8 MPH

The winds on the way into Freedom were pretty rough, between 10 to 14 MPH, and made the ride much more challenging than I expected. I was getting pretty fed up, but had to keep going.